OCTOBER 22, 1948

PARIS, Thursday—I mentioned the other day that I have been receiving a great many letters about prisoners,
mainly political prisoners, who themselves or whose families felt that they were put
under arrest unfairly. At first I did not understand why these letters should be addressed to me. Later, however, I found little notices in the newspapers
and magazines that stated, as chairman of the Human Rights Commission, I was the one
to receive such appeals.

Therefore, I think I should clear up for the general public the idea that petitions
or appeals of this kind can be handled by the Human Rights Commission.

This commission is not a court. There is as yet no machinery set up to handle petitions
of any kind. What we, as a commission, have been given to do is very simple. We have
been asked to write a Bill of Human Rights.

We decided that this bill should be in two parts, one the declaration and one the
covenant. It was decided also that the covenant, being a legal document and having
to be ratified by each nation individually, should also have included in it methods
for its implementation.

As yet, only the declaration is in form for presentation to the General Assembly.
The acceptance of this declaration does not force any nation to change its laws at
home. It merely sets certain standards for human rights, it states goals that we wish
to achieve throughout the world, and it has a moral value because governments accepting
it in the General Assembly will feel morally bound to strive at least to make a beginning
toward these goals.

Someday there may be the necessary machinery under the covenant to receive and to act on
petitions, but I do not have any idea when that machinery will be ready or what it
will be. At the present time there is none, and there is nothing that I, as an individual,
or the Human Rights Commission, as a group, can do to ascertain the rights or wrongs
of any case. There is still open to the citizens the normal government channels in
their own countries, but as yet there are no international channels for redress.

* * *

We were discussing the other day whether one sees many well-dressed women on the streets
of Paris today. I would say that, by and large, the streets of Paris present one of
the best pictures of the current hardships of French life.

The majority of people can be seen wearing clothes long after they have become shabby.
Practically every man wears a coat that does not match his trousers, and it is quite
evident that many of the women's coats and skirts do not go together.

Bicycles are more in evidence than I can remember from years ago, and I was amused the other day to see a woman, who
evidently was going to a party, carefully dressed with hat and veil and gloves, but
riding a bicycle with a large package on the handlebars. This morning on the avenue
that runs alongside the river I noticed a rather well-dressed woman in black standing
beside her bicycle. Her stockings were of heavy white, hand-knit cotton, and I noticed
also that a number of men are wearing these white hand-knit cotton stockings with
knickerbockers or as socks. Stockings evidently are hard to get and expensive; some
women just don't wear them, while others wear only hand-knit foot coverings inside
their shoes. Such are the economies of the thrifty French people.

* * *

Yesterday morning I made a short recording in French, which is to be inserted in a
Sunday evening radio variety broadcast. The questions asked by the master of ceremonies
were, on the whole, personal and dealt with subjects mainly of interest to women and
children.

First of all, I was asked what the American women could learn from the French women
and what the French women could learn from the American women. You will acknowledge that that is an intriguing question, and
I wonder what many of you readers would have answered.

Then I was told that the French people plan to send a return train to America in recognition
of what the Friendship Train sent to France by America meant to them. I was asked
what I thought our children at home would like from France in the way of toys, and
you can imagine how I wished I could have asked some lucky children at home that question.

* * *

I just had word from home that many birthday cards have been received, and I want
to thank, through this column, the many people who were kind enough to think of me on October 11. I know they will understand that it
is impossible for me to reply individually, but I want to tell them how grateful I
am for their kind thoughts.

E. R.

(WORLD COPYRIGHT, 1948, BY UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE, INC., REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR
IN PART PROHIBITED.)